Hollywood Showed Its Support For Immigrants At The Oscars

At the 90th Academy Awards, actors Lupita Nyong'o and Kumail Nanjiani used their moment on stage to declare their support for DREAMers across the country.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Before presenting the award for Best Production Design, Nyong'o and Nanjiani — who are both immigrants — gave a shout-out to young, undocumented immigrants currently awaiting a pathway to permanent US citizenship.

"Like everyone in this room and everyone watching at home, we are dreamers. We grew up dreaming of one day working in the movies. Dreams are the foundation of Hollywood, and dreams are the foundation of America," said Nyong'o.

Common also proclaimed his solidarity with DREAMers during his and Andra Day's performance of "Stand Up for Something," the Oscar-nominated song from Marshall.

And finally, The Shape of Water director Guillermo del Toro also referenced his immigrant peers in Hollywood and urged his fellow filmmakers and actors to continue to "erase the lines in the sand" that divide people.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

"I am an immigrant, like Alfonso [Cuarón], Alejandro [Iñárritu], my compadres. Like Gael [García Bernal], like Salma [Hayek], and like many, many of you," he said after winning the award for Best Director. "And in the last 25 years, I've been living in a country all of our own … The greatest thing our art does and our industry does is to erase the lines in the sand. We should continue to do that as the world tries to make them deeper.”

When he took the stage to accept the award for Best Picture, he spoke further about the power of storytelling. “I was a kid enamored with movies. Growing up in Mexico, I thought this could never happen. It happens," he said. "I want to tell you everyone [who] is dreaming of a parable of using…the genre of fantasy to tell the stories about the things that are real in the world today. You can do it. This is the door. Kick it open and come in.”

Susan Cheng is an entertainment reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles.